DerekB Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 (edited) While searching for wheels for a CAC Ceres build I picked up a Hasegawa Mustang kit quite cheaply. I was originally just going to use the kit's wheels, but then I thought it might be fun to build the Mustang as A68-39, VH-BOY, known as "Yankee", one of the target-towing aircraft flown by Fawcett Aviation out of Bankstown in the 50's. Fawcett's two Mustangs (VH-BOY "Yankee" and VH-BOZ "Miss Zulu") wore many colour schemes during their careers, but I quite like the early silver and red colours carried by "Yankee": This build will be mostly OOB (a few small changes for the target towing gear), but since the interior of the Hasegawa kit is such a "blank canvas" I'm in dire need of pictures of the interior of a two-seat Mustang... can anyone help? The fuselage fuel cell was removed and an observer's seat was installed behind the pilot, facing rearwards, to assist with target deployment and retrieval activities. Here's a shot of Fawcett's "Miss Zulu" in the same red speedbird colours (slightly different spinner) and showing the starboard-mounted propeller to power the target towing winch: I have David Muir's excellent (but costly) Southern Cross Mustangs book for reference, but sadly no interior photos... Edited September 9, 2020 by DerekB photos went missing Anthony in NZ, R Palimaka, sandokan and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted July 10, 2018 Author Share Posted July 10, 2018 Searching for references for this build, I contacted Geoff Goodall - luckily he is in the middle of updating his "Mustangs in Australia" web page, and he sent me a bunch of high resolution photos of VH-BOY. Fantastic. You can see Geoff's Mustang page here: Mustangs in Australia He already has a couple of images of VH-BOY shown. One of the photos is in colour and confirms the wheel wells were silver (not green) inside. Very helpful. Still waiting for details of the Type B target towing winch from a contact in the UK, but an image from Spitfire Spares gives an indication of the appearance of the internal part of the winch: MikeC, R Palimaka, KiwiZac and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattlow Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 Different Derek Maru.. This Mustang conversion is Derek Buckmaster's work. Interesting project Derek, interesting website as well... Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ron Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 There's an interesting subject. Great choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 Yes, very very cool project! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 14 hours ago, MARU5137 said: Mr Buckmaster looks uncannily like Derk B from UK. Maru, yes, I can understand the confusion! Derek B from UK (not me) and Derek B from Australia (me)! And to cap it off I'm on vacation in London for 2 weeks at the moment, so Derek B from Australia is in the UK! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted July 28, 2018 Author Share Posted July 28, 2018 (edited) Spent a couple of hours in the reading room at the RAF Museum in Hendon (London) yesterday, so now I have copies of a full set of manuals and details for the Type B target towing winch, including the drawings below. IMG_7249 by Derek Buckmaster, on Flickr Muir's Southern Cross Mustangs book shows details of the external section of the towing winch, but nothing about the internal part. This collection gives me all the detail I need for the section of the winch inside the cockpit, so now I just need to scale this to 1/32 and start work on building it... Edited July 28, 2018 by DerekB KiwiZac, MikeMaben, Kagemusha and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ossington 1 Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 Thank You for that picture. I've been on the lookout for those measurements for years. Virtual pint on its way! DerekB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 (edited) Continuing my preparations for this build... Firstly, I decided that the Hasegawa kit's sparse cockpit details were not going to cut it, since most of the focus for this model is around the cockpit and the modifications for the target towing gear and rear seat. So I sourced a cockpit sprue from the Tamiya P51-D/K Pacific Mustang kit from eBay. Second, I needed better seats, so I purchased two Barracuda Cast seats. So far I haven't found any photos showing the interior of VH-BOZ in target towing configuration, but these seats will be a good start. Third, I picked up an excellent set of photos of VH-BOZ from "The Collection" (search for them on eBay), selected by David Muir, author of Southern Cross Mustangs. These are all very useful. I'm currently working on a 3D CAD model of the Type B towing winch, so that I can get one printed by Shapeways... Edited April 24, 2019 by DerekB R Palimaka, LSP_Kevin, MikeMaben and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Palimaka Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 Now this is different! Fascinating choice! You have some excellent research material gathered up, this will definitely be one to follow. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antonio Argudo Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 HI Derek, cool project mate, however using Hasegawa's kit as a base wouldn't recommend it, it has big shape issues all around... a cheap option is the revell kit which captures the Mustang shape perfectly, anyway good luck mate, gotta love those oussies ponies!!! cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap'n Wannabe Posted April 28, 2019 Share Posted April 28, 2019 G'day Derek.. If you need any assistance with the decals, let me know. I have a thing for civvie Mustangs, and have done decal sheets for ZK-CCG (The Mobil Mustang), and VH-FCB in the Ansett Air Race scheme. KiwiZac, MikeMaben, DerekB and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekB Posted March 7, 2022 Author Share Posted March 7, 2022 (edited) ...well this one is moving slowly... I'm still playing around with the CAD model of the winch, and trying to figure how the rear seat and the winch drum managed to both fit behind the pilot's seat. Meantime, I've decided to dress up the wheel wells. Here's what I'm starting with from the Hasegawa kit. This will all get cut out and replaced with some nice resin from Aries... Edited March 7, 2022 by DerekB MikeC, scvrobeson, themongoose and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC Posted March 7, 2022 Share Posted March 7, 2022 Great subject, however did I miss it?? DerekB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted March 7, 2022 Share Posted March 7, 2022 Cool project Derek! Looking forward to seeing a different kind of mustang Craig DerekB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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